The Herero Demand for Reparations from Germany: the Hundred Year Old Legacy of a Colonial War in the Politics of Modern Namibia

Summary

Reparations claims have many forms, depending on the historical and political context in which they arose. Southern African claims often turn on specific land dispossessions. The Herero, a Namibian tribe of about 120,000 have persisted in a reparations claim against Germany that dates back at least to 1946, when Paramount Chief Frederick Maharero tried to place claims against Germany before the newly formed United Nations. The legal basis of this action, as well as its timing, was tied directly to the widespread genocides committed by Germany against various peoples during World War Two. German genocide against their people in the Herero War of 1904-1905 opened the twentieth century's wave of genocides. The idea that Germany could occupy land, in Africa or Europe, forcibly relocate vast populations in doing so, justify these actions on racial grounds, and kill whole populations whether they resisted or not, was not simply the result of Nazi ideology. This kind of thinking had a precursor in German South West Africa, now Namibia, just after the turn of the century. If the Herero were not at present rigorously pursuing reparations claims against Germany, the Herero War would be relegated to the status of an obscure historical footnote, with 60,000 nameless dead. Instead, the legacy of this war follows modern Germany with a clear message: genocide is never forgotten. The purpose of reparations is symbolic as well as financial. It matters both that Germany acknowledges these past wrongs, as well as compensates its victims.

GERMAN COLONISATION OF NAMIBIA AND THE HERERO WAR

The conquest of Africa, Asia, and Latin America by European nations gives rise to a wide range of demands for reparations. These conquests, spanning more than four hundred years, took a variety of forms, but all were bloody in one form or another. Millions of indigenous people died, were enslaved, or forcibly removed from their lands. Whole European societies were planted in different parts of the world, including the modern nations of Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Other European colonies were returned to the political control of indigenous populations, including Namibia, South Africa, Angola, and Zimbabwe.

Germany came late to the business of colonisation, only arriving in Africa in the 1880s. This late start put Germany, a nation with grand ambition, ‘behind’ other European countries, a factor that may have increased the violence of colonial warfare in German South West Africa.